A number of 26 photo-documentary panels with pictures from the period of dictatorship and of democracy in Europe in the 20th century are presented in an exhibition that was opened at the National Museum of History on June 17, with the support of the Embassy of Germany in Chisinau. The exhibit will continue until July 17, IPN reports.
The pictures show the extreme periods of the 20th century through which the European countries went, from the totalitarian regimes to global vision for peace. The exhibition was mounted by the Institute of Contemporary History of Munich, Deutschlandradio Kultur and the Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship of Germany. Authors Andreas Wirsching, Peter Weber and Ulrich Malert cooperated with the Moldovan Foreign Ministry in writing the texts accompanying the panels.
The authors tried to reconstruct crucial events, beginning with the First World War, the Bolshevik revolution of Russia and the Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union, continuing with the great economic depression, World War Two, the persecution and annihilation of Jews, the Cold War, and the confrontation between capitalism and communism, and ending with the liberalization process in Western Europe, collapse of the Communist system, the European integration and creation of the European Union.
“It is an exhibition dedicated to dramatic public events that present the 100 years of the start of the First World War. We, the Germans, also suffered as a result of this war. I felt myself this tyranny and its effect on the people. The road to democracy is long,” said German Ambassador to Moldova Matthias Meyer.
According to a press release of the Embassy of Germany, the exhibit aims to promote the European idea of building values concerning intercultural dialogue, based on tolerance, solidarity, democracy, equality of chances and mutual understanding.
The Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova Pirkka Tapiola said the event is important for Moldova’s European course too as it explains where we come from and what context we derive from.
